So, it's been an interesting past couple of days. Following our trip to the Alps most of us went out for White Nights. That was an experience. Twice a year, the museums and some of the cafes stay open late. The museums offer free admission, so lots and lots and lots of people (I think all of the people who love in Torino and more who don't) were out exploring the city. Unfortunately we got a late start and the museums that we really wanted to see were either closed or waaaay too crowded to get into. We did get into one, and it was beyond interesting. Refer to Nicole's most recent blog for some details. The best part of that was the random loud cheers in the middle of the street at 2 in the morning for no reason. It was an experience at the very least.

The morning after that, we had to be to work at 7am which proved to be a difficult after little sleep. Right after work, Nicole, Lauren and I began our 9 hour aerial freestyle skiing adventure. We left work and went straight to the train station. Just before we left Torino it started snowing, so we knew if it was snowing here, it would definately be snowing in the mountains. We were right. It was snowing HARD! After a one hour train ride and a 15 minute bus ride, we walked to our standing room only area and waited for an hour before an anouncement that because of the weather conditions, the competition had been postponed an hour and a half to 8pm. So, lots and lots of people started leaving and we were able to get a very good place to stand and we held our ground there. At 8, there was another announcement that the competition had been delayed "until further notice" but they still wanted us to stick around because there is no reentry. It wasn't for another 15 minutes that there was an announcement that it has been postponed to Tuesday night. So, we started to leave the venue by walking to the top of the hill where the busses usually pick people up. Once we reached that area, there was another announcement that because of the heavy, heavy snowfall and all the cars, traffic was stopped. It was going to take over an hour for busses to travel 3.5km which works out to be about 2 miles, and they were recomending that people walk down the mountain. So the three of us started our journey. About half way down, we see a bus with only four people on it, so we flagged it down and got on. We never did find out why there were only four people on the bus, but it worked out well for us. That bus then stopped again and picked up another group of 15 or so people who did not speak any English or Italian, but it was entertaining. The bus took us to the train station in Oulx where we were to catch a train back to Torino. When we got off the bus, we discovered there was a train ready to leave on the tracks, so we ran the length of the trainstation, underground across the tracks and then to the only open door at the opposite end of the train - all with backpacks and full snow gear on. It must have been quite funny to watch! We ended up getting back to Torino around midnight - thus our nine hour snow adventure with nothing to show for it! AND......we're doing it all again tomorrow!! I checked the weather and it said cloudy so hopefully we won't have the same misfortune. Wish us luck!

Tonight the US Women's Ice Hockey team is in the Bronze Medal game against Finland. We'll be there cheering them on!

More pictures to come soon....

Joleen